© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A Ford logo on a car at the 86th International Motor Show in Geneva, Switzerland, March 1, 2016. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo
BERLIN (Reuters) – Ford plans to cut 3,800 product development and management positions in Europe over the next three years, the company said on Tuesday, citing rising costs and the need for a leaner structure as production rotates. towards electric vehicles.
Around 2,300 jobs will go to the automaker’s Cologne and Aachen sites in Germany, 1,300 in the UK and 200 in the rest of Europe, the company said, adding that it intends to achieve the reductions at through voluntary separation programs.
The news is a blow to the unions, which said at the end of January that the worst scenario on the table was the loss of 2,500 jobs in Europe.
The American automaker will retain around 3,400 engineers in the region who will build on core technology provided by their American counterparts and tailor it for European customers, the head of European passenger electric vehicles (EVs) and director of Ford Germany said. , Martin Sander, at a press conference.
“There is significantly less work to be done on drive trains coming out of combustion engines. We are moving towards a world with fewer global platforms where less engineering work is needed. That is why we have to make the adjustments,” he said. Sander.
Nothing has changed in the automaker’s electrification strategy, Sander said, with the goal of offering an all-electric fleet in Europe by 2035 still in effect.
Ford will launch its first electric vehicle in Europe built on the Volkswagen MEB (ETR:) platform in Cologne later this year and is considering bringing a Ford platform to Europe, possibly to its plant in Valencia, Sander said.
“We are preparing our organization to compete and win in a region facing unprecedented economic and geopolitical obstacles,” he said.
